Telegraph 'didn't tell any lies but was selective in its facts', says Lib Dem Voice site editor

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The Daily Telegraph has published at least three misleading stories about Liberal Democrat MPs, the editor of the Liberal Democrat Voice website claimed this week.

Stephen Tall, a Liberal Democrat party member and former councillor, who participated in a panel at the Frontline Club on Monday evening , later told Journalism.co.uk that the Telegraph had been very careful in its wording of articles but that its headlines and presentation of stories had been misleading.

"They didn't tell any lies but they were selective in their facts. A lot of what they were talking about was innuendo," Tall said.

When Journalism.co.uk followed up the claims with the Telegraph, a spokesperson from the group issued this statement:

"The Telegraph does not discuss its private correspondence with individual Members of Parliament. The Telegraph prides itself on its high standards of journalism."

Jo Swinson and the eyeliner

Tall used the case of Jo Swinson, Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire , as one example: the headline in the print edition, which differed online, ran: 'Tooth flosser, eyeliner and 29p dusters for the makeover queen.' Online the headline read: 'Jo Swinson submitted receipts for tooth flosser and eyeliner'.

Swinson, however, denies claiming for eyeliner , other cosmetics and dusters, although these were among the items on receipts used for making other claims.

The online version of the Telegraph article states: "Also among her receipts was a £27.94 bill from Boots, which included a £5 eyeliner, a lip liner for the same price, and a £12.00 'R&M Eye Kit,'" a sentence Tall believes is accurate but misleading.

"What has happened is that they have deliberately distorted the story to give a [particular] impression," said Tall. It was picked up by other news outlets, including the BBC and the Guardian , who both missed the 'nuances' of the Telegraph's wording, he argued.

Tall claimed that complaints have been made to all three media organisations: the Guardian issued a clarification that they had 'stated without qualification' that cosmetics were included in the receipts; but, at time of writing, the BBC and Telegraph articles did not overtly indicate any correction made.

Meanwhile The Daily Mail ran the following headline : '"Makeover queen" MP claimed eyeliner and £19.10 "tooth flosser" on expenses'. Two bloggers have reported the letters they received from the Telegraph after complaining about the story. "The matter was resolved amicably and no other issue was raised. We are satisfied that there has been no breach of the PCC Code of Practice," Rhidian Wynn Davies, the Telegraph's consulting editor informed James Graham , who writes the Quaequam blog.

Alan Reid and Andrew George

Two other examples, Tall said, involved MPs Alan Reid and Andrew George. The Telegraph reported in its online headline : 'Andrew George claimed for £308,000 flat used by daughter as "bolt hole"'.

George has since said it was a 'mendacious and vindictive' story and claimed that he owns a third of the flat in question, which he said is for his own use, and occasionally also used by his daughter.

"The only payback here is the apology I'm owed by the Telegraph insinuating that I bought a home for my daughter," he said in a report by the Independent. "This story is a complete fabrication, there is no basis to it whatsoever." George's full complaints about the media coverage are detailed on his website. A comment piece posted on LibDemVoice.org by Alix Mortimer discussing the cases claimed 'the Telegraph's misrepresentation begins to amount to outright lying.'

"At the time of writing, the Telegraph has failed even to acknowledge that Andrew pays for one third of the flat. Since it is not telling the truth on that matter, it is very hard to judge the veracity of the rest of its claims," Mortimer argued in her article.

Alan Reid MP is identified by Mortimer as another example: she said it was unreasonable that the Telegraph had targeted the MP for claiming £1,580 in B&B claims within his own Scottish constituency, Argyll and Bute.

Mortimer and other other Liberal Democrat bloggers, such as Andrew Reeves, said the Telegraph had failed to take into account the size of the constituency, much of it made up of islands.

"From his spending and working patterns he ought to be the kind of person being held up by the Telegraph and others as the model of probity - the hard-working MP who actually visits his constituents and doesn’t spend his time living it up in a paid-for London pad," Mortimer said in the piece which attracted some criticism, as well as support, in the comments beneath it.

Reid made some response to the allegations in the original Telegraph article.

Andrew Turner and the life coaching

A case echoing the Liberal Democrat examples is that of Conservative MP Andrew Turner, covered on the VentnorBlog based in the Isle of Wight. The Telegraph's headline stated : 'Andrew Turner claimed for "life coaching" classes for his parliamentary assistant girlfriend'.

According to a transcript, available on the MP's website [ in PDF format at this link ], Turner told the Telegraph that the coaching was for another member of staff in his office and not his girlfriend, Carole Dennett.

A spokesperson from Andrew Turner's office told Journalism.co.uk that the MP received the request for information 11.50am on June 1, the day before publication and were informed they should respond by 5pm, which the spokesman claims he did.

In addition the story in the Telegraph 'also incorrectly quoted a figure of £579 for Occupational Health services', claimed Turner, in a release on his website . The correct amount was £75, he stated.

'Clear attempts to distort the truth,' says Tall

The Liberal Democrat examples were 'clear attempts to distort the truth' by the Telegraph, Tall said.

"The bigger trouble is that other news outlets have picked it up and recycled it," he added.

Newspaper articles are no longer 'tomorrow's fish and chip paper' in an era of digital publication, he said.

Because of its high Google ranking, the 'misrepresentative' piece concerning Jo Swinson will be the first thing online users find, if the Telegraph does not make an online correction, he said. During the panel discussion on Monday Tall also criticised the 'kind of packaged up version' of expenses, which mixed cases 'verging on the criminal,' 'ethically dodgy stuff' and 'stuff that was pretty much legitimate' in its reportage, he said.

This, however, he later told Journalism.co.uk, was a more 'subjective' criticism and a secondary concern to the articles he believes misrepresented MPs' cases.

Pierce says only one correction made so far

Andrew Pierce, assistant editor at the Telegraph, claimed during the Frontline Club debate that the paper had only made one correction in regards to a 'mixed up' house.

According to Pierce, 240 broadsheet pages covering the story have been published so far: "So far we've published one correction: we got a house mixed up. I’d say in terms of journalism that ain’t a bad ratio." ThisisGloucestershireToday.co.uk reported that the Telegraph had promised to correct a story about a mortgage interest of £1,500 a month, made by Liberal Democrat MP Martin Horwood. The MP denies claiming for any mortgage interest payment.

It is not clear if this the example to which Pierce was referring - when Journalism.co.uk contacted the assistant editor by email on Wednesday, a response from the paper's press office said: "The Daily Telegraph does not discuss individual cases."

Other complaint cases

One of first complaints levelled against the Telegraph for its use of the facts came from Phil Woolas, Minister of State for Immigration and Borders. He told the BBC he thought allegations that he had claimed for certain items were 'disgusting'. The Telegraph subsequently defended its claims about Woolas' expenses .

Earlier this week Gordon Brown's brother, Andrew Brown, won a libel payout for an article , printed online and in print by Scotland on Sunday, which suggested he had 'pocketed' money claimed by the Prime Minister in parliamentary expenses.

The libel payout will be donated to a research fund in his niece's name.